1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to method, medium, and system generating a depth map from a two-dimensional (2D) video image in order to convert the 2D video image to a three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Attention has been focused on 3D image displaying techniques for providing stereoscopic images to viewers with the development of multimedia and broadcasting techniques. A 3D image is a stereoscopic image obtained by adding a depth axis to a 2D image composed of vertical and horizontal axes.
Two methods are proposed in order to produce stereoscopic images. The first method captures an image using at least two cameras to generate left-eye and right-eye images and produces a stereoscopic image from the left-eye and right-eye images. The second method analyzes and processes an image captured with a single view point (for example, a single camera) to generate left-eye and right-eye images and produces a stereoscopic image from the left-eye and right-eye images. The former produces new video contents while the latter converts the existing video contents to stereoscopic images. Considering that most existing video contents are 2D image produced in the past, it can be known that the latter technique can be useful to generate stereoscopic images.
The latter technique generates a depth map for generating a 3D stereoscopic image from a 2D image. The depth map is a group of information determining depth values of individual objects and the ground of the 2D image in the 3D stereoscopic image. For example, when a person stands in a playground, the playground has a depth value smaller than that of the person. Since the 3D stereoscopic image is generated based on the depth map, it is very important to generate the depth map accurately and efficiently in an image conversion technique.